


Firefight & Starlight

by Kiiratam



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action, Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22047472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Yang and Blake are riding home from Vale after a full day of doing nothing important.Takes place between Volumes 1 and 2. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86





	Firefight & Starlight

When it happened, Yang didn't recognize it at first. It was after nightfall, and they were rocketing along the Vale expressway, heading back to Beacon Academy. Blake and Yang on Bumblebee, stomachs full of fish tacos and saddlebags full of new books and motorcycle parts.

  
At first, Yang thought Blake was tapping out, telling her to pull over. So she eased off the acceleration, and glanced around for a decent spot. And as she looked, Yang realized that Blake wasn't just repeatedly tapping her stomach with her hand, but very deliberately poking her with her pinkie and forefinger. Which wasn't 'pull over', but- Yang saw the three police cars behind her - 'danger'.

  
As if on cue, all three of them flipped their sirens on. Blake flinched into her at the noise, and Yang was suddenly _very_ glad she'd slowed down. But it looked like they had bigger prey in mind, as a gray van ahead of them slammed on the gas.

  
Yang and everyone who was paying half a mind of attention, drifted back and to the sides, letting the police interceptors zoom through. They formed a loose cage around the van, and the old white truck whose driver was apparently asleep. Someone leaned out of the van's passenger window with an SMG. Blake was reaching for Yang's jacket pocket, for her scroll and the emergency weapon pod summons. Yang blew out a breath, ready to gun Bumblebee and close the distance. Even without Ember Celica, she could help.

  
And a tall woman with dark blue hair leapt out of the bed of the truck, grabbing onto the gunner. She disarmed them - even with the opening distance, Yang could tell their arm had been broken - and swung onto the top of the van, drawing one of the curved swords off of her back. The van swerved wildly, into the truck, and the woman jammed her sword into the roof to keep her footing. 

  
Blake was holding onto Yang's scroll, but had just locked her arms back around Yang's waist. Apparently, she thought things were under control. Yang had to agree with her, as the truck pushed back, and the van swerved the other way, overbalancing. The Huntress just held on, as the van toppled over and skidded to a stop with a screech and a shower of sparks.

  
Traffic was slowly coming to a stop, and one of the interceptors was already turning around to deal with it. The Huntress was dragging the unresisting driver out of the van, and Yang was pretty sure all the actual excitement was over. They'd probably have a lane open in ten minutes or so, but...

  
She tapped Blake's hand and pointed at the exit ramp just past the downed van. Blake threw a thumbs ups.

  
Yang steered Bumblebee into the shoulder and sidled past the whole situation, catching an exasperated look from one of the uniforms as she did. She muttered under her breath, "Suck it, authority figure," and sped down the ramp.

  
From there, Yang tried to get back to the expressway, but the next on-ramp was under construction. She decided that the expressway was cursed tonight, and just made directly for the Beacon access road. Blake put Yang's scroll back into her jacket, but otherwise just kept her arms tight around her. Yang took her time, weaving through the residential streets. The semester was over, after all. There was no homework to finish, no early classes to wake up for. No reason to rush back. Apart from team practice, but Ruby had even pushed those back a bit, giving them a bit more time to sleep in.

  
And as much as Yang loved Bumblebee roaring underneath her, speed blurring the world around her - the longer Yang took getting to Beacon, the longer she could have Blake's arms wrapped around her.

  
It was selfish of her. Yang knew that. But for tonight, at least, she was forcing herself not to care. Excuses kept coming into her head - 'it's safer this way,' 'I can practice street driving,' 'Blake can always use more time practicing' - and Yang kept shoving them aside. She knew why she was really doing this.

  
Yang didn't really know when it had happened, but Blake had changed. It was hard for Yang to really know, because Blake hadn't really shifted how she talked to Yang. But everyone else - now everyone else could get more than a few words out of Blake. Not just when Weiss did something thoughtless, and Blake started ranting at her. Actual conversations. Even with Weiss. Or Jaune, or Nora, or or or. And Blake had started, quite literally, reaching out again. Even just tapping people on the arm to get their attention, all the way through giving Ruby hugs.

  
It was progress. Progress _from_ what, exactly, Yang couldn't say. She'd gathered enough pieces that she had pretty strong suspicions - no, more than that. She had a white-hot ball of fire tucked away in the back of her mind, and one day, she would shove that _through_ Adam's _face_ for everything he'd done to Blake... not that she knew what Adam looked like. Or many details at all. Yang had a name, and enough clues to flip her eyes red. And a friend that was slowly, painfully, healing.

  
And some feelings for Blake that went well past friendship.

  
Those were the ones that were hard to control. Especially when Yang could see some of the same feelings in Blake.

  
But Blake wanted to go slow. So they'd go slow. 

  
Yang had seen some messy break-ups among her Signal friends, but nothing, nothing on the level that Blake had gone through. Even calling it a break-up felt wrong. 

  
It had been a relationship. Maybe. At one point. Or at least, Blake had evidently thought so. She'd talked about it like it was.

  
Or at least, that was Yang's reading. Everything she knew was built out of suppositions, Blake's sleep-talking, and a few logical leaps. _Which is why_ , she told herself, _it's pointless to think too much about it. Just take it one day at a time._

  
And today - tonight - had been a fun couple of hours in Vale together. Doing their usual stop at the food truck for fish tacos, then the book store for Blake, and the auto shop for Yang. With Blake ploughing through her latest acquisitions while Yang picked up what she needed for Bumblebee. Not talking about anything important. Not talking much at all, actually. They didn't need to, and Blake seemed to appreciate the silence. It wasn't like they could really talk on Bumblebee, anyway.

  
They were finally on the access road, starting the long climb up towards Beacon. It wove back and forth, and the road wasn't in the best condition. Yang was sure it was on a to-do list _somewhere_ , but considering how much easier it was to bring everything in by air, she guessed it wasn't exactly a top priority. There was no one else on it now, and there hadn't been when they'd driven down it, either.

  
It wasn't that much of a surprise, then, when the widely-spaced road lamps flickered and died. Rolling her eyes, Yang reached for the switch for her brights.

  
Blake tapped her stomach repeatedly.

  
Knowing that Blake's night vision was much, _much_ better than hers, Yang slammed on Bumblebee's brakes. They skewed to a stop, the silence all round them almost drowning out the idling of the motor.

  
"Sorry." Blake had tightened her arms around Yang's waist, but had managed to keep herself helpfully upright during the braking. "No emergency."

  
Yang blew out a breath, and fought down her adrenaline spike. She looked back over her shoulder at her friend. "What is it?"

  
Pulling her helmet off, Blake looked up. "The sky. Can you turn Bumblebee off?"

  
"Yeah, hold on." Yang edged her motorcycle off to the side of the road, just in case there was someone else on the road. As unlikely as that seemed. She switched Bumblebee off, and took off her own helmet. And looked up.

  
They were far enough from Vale that the city lights weren't overpowering. And the slope and trees blocked Beacon from view. Which afforded the two of them an excellent view of the night sky. The moon wasn't in the sky - though whether that was because it hadn't risen yet, or because it was a new moon, Yang couldn't say. Which just left a night sky filled with stars. Shining down on them, some briefly occluded by wisps of clouds.

  
Yang picked out the constellations she recognized - the Four Sisters: holding hands in a circle - the Huntress and Hunter: with spear and bow - the Warrior: eyes blazing behind her shield - The Dragon: coiled on its star-horde. All as they'd been, as they'd be, from her first breath to her last. Farther than the Grimm would ever reach. Beautiful.

  
She lowered her gaze from the heavens. To Blake, still staring up, eyes bright with reflected starlight. The rest of her almost vanished into the darkness, and Yang was just able to pick up the edges of her outline. And the smile on her face. 

  
Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder, squeezed it tightly. And dropped her eyes to meet Yang's. "Thank you. We can go."

  
"We don't have to. We can stay longer." It was true. Yang didn't mind staying. It was beautiful. And so was Blake. Not that Yang exactly had a great view of her, looking back over her shoulder, but beauty was beauty, and Blake stargazing was a new beauty for Yang. One that she wanted to take plenty of time to appreciate.

  
"I'd like that." And Blake turned her face upwards again.


End file.
